


Days Like This

by LiraelClayr007



Series: Natasha Bingo 2020 [2]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Broken Bones, Clumsy Clint Barton, Fireflies, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-18
Updated: 2020-03-18
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:33:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23202523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiraelClayr007/pseuds/LiraelClayr007
Summary: There are six of them at the Barton Farm, sprawled on the back porch that runs the length of the house....A peaceful moment amid so many crazy ones. Natasha takes a little time to breathe and think about family....and Clint–being Clint–gets injured.
Relationships: background Clint/Bucky - Relationship
Series: Natasha Bingo 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1666540
Comments: 8
Kudos: 30
Collections: Natasha Bingo





	Days Like This

**Author's Note:**

> Natasha Bingo
> 
> Square Filled - Broken Bones

Sometimes having a family is overwhelming.

When Natasha was growing up she only thought about the mission, only worried about herself. Sometimes she had to protect an asset, but generally it was _things_ she protected, and most often it was _information_ stored in her own brain. And she’d been extensively trained to look out for herself, to the point where it was almost easy.

There had been others, sure. Some even stayed longer than she’d ever expected. But she’d never truly thought of them as _family_.

(Well. There had been a few. But that’s a whole other story.)

But then Clint and Coulson had been added to her little sphere of existence, and everything turned upside down. Yes, it was still all about the mission, most of the time. But there were other times, small moments, when they were just...people. Learning how to be people. Together.

And now.

There are six of them at the Barton Farm, sprawled on the back porch that runs the length of the house. Clint leans against Bucky, his left arm in a sling. He’d broken it that morning trying to stop a runaway truck from running into a little boy. He’d saved the boy, but his arm is going to take a month or so to heal. Bucky’s murmuring to Clint; she can’t make out every word but she catches something about “reckless behavior” and “hero complex.” She almost rolls her eyes. As if Bucky wouldn’t have done the exact same thing.

Thor has a bottle of beer in his hand, a microbrew he brought from New York. He’s practically singing its praises to Sam, who keeps looking past Thor to Steve for rescue. Steve doesn’t help, just grins. “It’s nearly Asgardian! Such rich flavor, such lovely color. What say you, friend falcon?”

Nat herself is leaning against one of the support posts, one leg bent with her foot flat on the wooden slats of the porch and the other dangling off the edge. She’s apart from the others, but only just enough to breathe. It’s good to be here, away from the closeness of the Tower, away from the constant comings and goings, away from someone (usually Tony) insisting on giving orders and someone else (usually Clint) insisting on getting hurt. It’s not quiet, not exactly, but there’s a lack of people noise that she’s learning to appreciate more and more. She hears crickets under the porch, and further out she hears the higher buzz of tree frogs. The first time she’d been here she’d been sure they were insects, hadn’t believed Clint’s insistence that they were frogs until he’d taken her out and hunted one down with her. She hadn’t been able to sleep that first night; the sound of the frogs in her ears drowning out every other sound until she thought she’d go mad. But tonight it soothes her, reminds her that this place–like the Tower, like her team–has somehow become home to her.

“Another!” Thor’s voice booms out into the relative stillness, and Nat looks up to see Sam shoot forward, almost falling, reaching for the bottle in Thor’s hand. Thor’s laugh echoes into the night. “I’m not going to break it, little bird. ‘Twas only a jest.” Sam sits back, half glaring, half relieved; Steve tries hard to cover his grin, but he can’t hide from Natasha.

“But I will have another,” Thor says with a smile. When he comes back from the kitchen he has two bottles; when Sam grudgingly accepts the other Thor says, “All is forgiven then?” Sam nods, then actually smiles.

“Oh look! Fireflies!” Clint leaps off the porch, as if he didn’t grow up on this very farm, chasing fireflies on just about every summer night when he was small. She watches him, leaping and laughing, and she can’t help but smile. She knows he doesn’t have many happy childhood memories, of course he should relive this one.

And then, because he’s Clint, he trips over what looks like nothing at all. He hits the ground hard with an “ _oof_!” and then there’s a drawn out groan of pain. “Buck,” he calls, but Bucky is already there, and so is she, trying to assess the damage. They look at each other in the dark, as if to say, _How do we protect this ordinary and often very clumsy human from himself?_

“It’s my right foot,” Clint says, at just the same time Natasha says, “He stepped in a hole.”

Clint winces as Bucky runs his hands over the offending foot. Bucky says, “I don’t have x-ray vision, but I think you may have broken something. We’ll wrap it up, get it checked out in the morning.”

“There’s an x-ray on the quinjet,” Steve interjects. He, Thor, and Sam are standing around Clint too now. She has to bite back a smile; they all look like they want to be doing something to help but there’s only so much Clint to go around, and Bucky’s already scooped him up to carry him back to the house.

Bucky gives Steve an even look. “Will it make any difference if we x-ray it tonight?”

Looking uncomfortable, Steve finally says, “Not really.”

“Then I’m taking him to bed.”

Clint grins and winks at Steve.

“Not for that,” Bucky says.

Clint pouts. “Spoil my fun,” he mutters.

“You’re the one who had to run barefoot into an uneven field in the dark.”

“But there were fireflies!”

Natasha just shakes her head, listening to the two men bicker as Bucky carries Clint back to the house. Behind her Thor is pointing out stars to Sam, and Steve is trying to convince Thor that he should help them catch fireflies. “I think you might be able to just call them to you,” he says to Thor. “Can’t you at least try?”

“Oh, he’s so right,” Sam says. “I mean, they’re _lightning_ bugs.”

Yes, sometimes family is overwhelming.

And complicated.

But she wouldn’t trade it for anything.


End file.
